Page 113 of Oathbreaker

She tilts her head from side to side before saying, “I mean, I get it. But also, marriage is a piece of paper, ya know?”

“Ah, but it’s an important piece of paper.”

She responds by pulling a Blow Pop out of her back pocket.

“You’ll understand when you get there,” I say.

She startles slightly.

“Are you there with someone?”

“No!” she says quickly.

I quirk an eyebrow. “Methinks the lady doth protesteth too much,” I say.

She puts her lollipop in her mouth.

“Ella I-Don’t-Know-Your-Middle-Name Brigham. Are you seeing someone seriously?” I try to put on my best maternal voice.

She chokes. “N-not seriously,” she says.

“Oh, my God, you so are,” I say, leaning in closer to her. “Who is it?” I whisper.

Her face flushes completely. She looks around the room and out in the hallway. Ensuring we’re alone, she says, “You can’t tell anyone. I’m so serious. Like, this is the sole test of our ability to be friends. If you tell anyone, I’ll put superglue in your lip gloss.” She holds my hands, whispering back to me frantically.

“Oh Lord, who is it?”

She squeezes my wrists as she quickly shakes my entire forearm with her strong grip. “Promise!”

“I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.” She looks at me as if I just stripped off my clothes and started doing the Macarena.

“My bad, that was a millennial moment. Your secret is safe with me. I’m an almost-therapist. I have trained on how to be a vault of secrets.” I drop my voice even lower. “Now spill.”

She breathes in and out, then says, “It’s Leo.”

She claps a palm over my mouth at my unrestrained yelp. When she lets my face go, I slap my hand over my mouth.

“Girl, what?” I say, and if possible, she blushes an even deeper red.

“You cannot freak out, and you absolutely cannot tell Hunter.” She looks scared, worried.

So I get nervous.

“You’re not—you’re okay with this relationship, right? He’s not forcing you or?—”

“No! Oh, God, if anything, I was the one forcing—” She drops her head back into her hands again.

Wishing to end her misery, I say, “Hey, it’s all cool. Plus, the age gap thing is kinda hot.”

She peeks at me between her fingers.

“As long as you’re safe and having fun, that’s all that matters. No one else gets a say.”

She mumbles, “You don’t know my brother then.”

And I do have to give her that one. If Hunter were to know that his best friend and his barely legal sister are...doing whatever they are doing, he’d probably shoot Leo. But he’d make sure it wasn’t fatal just so he could torture him before throwing him in the Potomac.

“I won’t tell anyone, especially Hunter,” I say, pulling her in for a hug.

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